Kara Reyes didn't set out to build a $1.8 million business. She set out to teach people how to cook on a $50/week grocery budget. In 2022, she started a YouTube channel from her studio apartment in Phoenix using a phone propped against a stack of cookbooks. Her first video got 140 views, 60 of which were from her own rewatches.
Three years later, she has 6.2 million subscribers, a cookbook deal, a Substack with 80,000 paid subscribers, and a business that generated $1.8 million in revenue last year without a single brand deal in its first twelve months.
The Community Post Strategy
The key to Kara's business is not her main videos — which average about 800,000 views each — but her Community Posts. Every weekday morning at 7am, she posts a Community Post. Sometimes it's a poll ("What should I cook this Sunday?"). Sometimes it's a quick recipe tip. Sometimes it's a personal update. The posts average 15,000 likes and 800 comments. More importantly, they keep her 6.2 million subscribers in active relationship with her content — and with each other.
"Most creators treat Community Posts as an afterthought. For me, they're the product. The videos are the marketing for the community, not the other way around." — Kara Reyes
Of Kara's total revenue generated by Community Post-driven conversions